‘We Are The Explorers’: A Symphony Of NASA And Star Trek

Caleb Scharf is the director of Columbia University's multidisciplinary
Astrobiology Center. He has worked in the fields of observational
cosmology, X-ray astronomy, and more recently exoplanetary science. His books include Gravity's Engines (2012) and The Copernicus Complex (2014) (both from Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)
Follow on Twitter @caleb_scharf.

Caleb Scharf is the director of Columbia University's multidisciplinary
Astrobiology Center. He has worked in the fields of observational
cosmology, X-ray astronomy, and more recently exoplanetary science. His books include Gravity's Engines (2012) and The Copernicus Complex (2014) (both from Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)
Follow on Twitter @caleb_scharf.

NASA produces a lot of great visual material, including some slick inspirational videos. But as a federal agency it can’t legally purchase air time to put this material in front of TV or movie-going audiences.

Enter a crowdfunded effort to place ‘We Are The Explorers’ as a trailer to the upcoming Star Trek movie ‘Into Darkness’ on as many screens as possible. It’s been tremendously successful so far, and will air on 50 screens nationwide for the first 8 weeks of the movie’s opening – as an edited 30 second piece. The campaign is now working to hit a goal that’ll enable them to put the trailer in at least one theater in every state in the USA for two weeks.

Although the gravelly voiced narration (and yes, that is Optimus Prime) or discretely US-centric content might not be to your taste (but hey, this is NASA and US $’s foot the bill), it’s a very cool presentation. And yes, it’s pretty inspirational.

Here it is in full.

About the Author: Caleb Scharf is the director of Columbia University's multidisciplinary
Astrobiology Center. He has worked in the fields of observational
cosmology, X-ray astronomy, and more recently exoplanetary science. His books include Gravity's Engines (2012) and The Copernicus Complex (2014) (both from Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)
Follow on Twitter @caleb_scharf.